Indonesia under New Order ("Orde Baru") Dictatorship

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yeah

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he

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towards the end of 1965 Indonesia

erupted in a blood barath neighbor

turned against neighbor in mass killings

which left half a million people dead

the trauma of these events has left a

lasting scar on the soul of the

country there are something we cannot

forget in our life and it is one of the

thing that I cannot forget in my life

but I believe it just happened like that

it is part of a

history we never expect to be like that

before but it is something that we we

have to do that thing because people

cannot do anything what they like

sometime they have to do something what

they they they they they forc to do like

self-defend or something we don't want

to fight we don't want to kill the other

but sometime we have to defend ourselves

it is part of our

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life

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the Army now rules Indonesia the fourth

largest nation in the world its military

leaders have put Economic Development

before all else they have provided the

political stability so attractive to

foreign

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investment

Indonesia with its fast growing economy

is now the most powerful nation in the

region but with increasing Prosperity

Indonesians are beginning to demand a

say in the running of their

country the Army however is reluctant to

risk a return to the turbulence of the

1960s its leaders are not convinced that

the time is right to relax restrictions

that currently regulate everyday

life under the New Order government no

direct opposition is

permitted but some are prepared to

challenge the government's vision and to

call openly for more

democracy New Order started with a new

program uh investment was

needed the climate for investment had to

be made favorable in the first place

stabilization no Angry labor

unions low wages and of course not too

much talk about human rights so for the

development that we got in

exchange there is uh of course the

question can you exchange your human

rights

for doing away with poverty and I think

that is of course a very academic

question it uh I think that there will

be no development without

democracy and that there is no democracy

without the right to organize and to

associate and freedom of expression you

must not forget that the end of the old

order sukarno really had made a mess out

of economical situation in

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India in 1945 Indonesia declared its

independence from Colonial

rule for the first time this archipelago

of over 13,000 islands and hundreds of

ethnic groups saw itself as a nation the

Republic of

Indonesia for four years they were to

fight against the Dutch under the one

Banner Mera

Freedom now independence had been

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won in the new Republic a Weston style

parliamentary democracy was established

with President sakano as head of

state but already forces at work within

the country Muslim Army and communist

had begun to threaten the the unity of

the new

nation president sako's major

achievement and his constant aim was to

hold the country together I tolerate all

ideologies the Nationalist ideologies

the religious idology the Communist

idology so far they are not making

trouble or damage to the Indonesian

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State during the 1950s is Army Le

rebellions sprang up on the outer

islands of samatra and

soli the rebels complained they were not

receiving their rightful share of the

huge income the central government

collected from their oil and other

resources they resented too a growing

alliance between President sakano and

the Communist

Party sako's government declared a state

of war and dispatched Army Chief of

Staff General Nan to put down the

uprisings when Sumatra mostly was in

Rebellion I was Chief of Staff I put a

flying boat what is said PB above to

observe his situation I reported at 2:00

in the night that a big four engine uh

plane was above him and he saw fires

like Scouts and that uh fires on the

grounds when I came back at the airport

to get my plane to go back to my

headquarters one Captain came out from

under the bridge a rebellion Captain

yeah and he said he has been there he

was in charge to receive all the dropped

uh anti-aircraft guns and ammunition by

American

planes yeah immediately I got

immediately myself the report from the

captain of the pr and he has to help us

to get all these things CIA was involved

uh giving not only political backing but

also uh planes and also uh guns and so

on so why did the Americans want to join

with the rebels no you can read now in

the senate committee when they

interrogated the situation that it was

the Dallas period of CIA to topple

sukarno they s that sukaro is going

closer CL go up to the Communist

side within months the rebellions had

been

crushed the Army found its power and

Prestige greatly enhanced its claim to

aay in running the country had been

dramatically

reinforced today the Army effectively

runs the

country to improve its standing in the

Villages it gets involved in community

projects

fore

fore

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for

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Indonesia is the largest Muslim country

in the world over 90% of its people are

believers many Muslims distrust the

growing Western influence in their

country and want to maintain the

national emphasis on family and

community

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life

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spe

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for

for

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kilo

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the struggle against the Dutch had

destroyed the economy despite

Independence most of the wealth had

remained in Dutch

hands in 1957 president Sagano

nationalized the major

industries 2 years later sakano

frustrated by the failure of

parliamentary democracy to solve

Indonesia's economic and political

problems devised a new system of

government guided democracy by which he

would now have real

power to balance the still growing

influence of the army he forged an

alliance with the Communists the pki

believing they would support his own

radical agenda meanwhile his own rule

became increasingly

autocratic his system of guided

democracy was to provide the basis of

the government

today I am just a father of the people

they have made me a lifelong president

they have made me the leader of the

Revolution because yeah perhaps or

maybe I'm doing everything according to

the wishes of the

people do you allow a foreign opinion to

come in here do you permit foreign

newspapers and magazines to be

circulated in your country of not if the

foreign magazines of newspapers are

making anti- Indonesia propaganda we

think prda and his bestes makes

anti-American propaganda every day do

you think we should keep it out I don't

know that is your

[Laughter]

business that's your

bus I understand that there is a a

secret society of Indonesians who like

to hear the Beatles but they are not met

with official yes I prohibit Beatles and

beeism here

and I prohibit also twist here you

consider beeism a form of colonialism no

just a mental disease what are the

penalties Mr President I have interacted

the police just only to to cut the

hair cut the hair cut the hair be

bo I was a writer at the time I was a

literary writer

and then the the

Communist cultural

organizations made sukaro bent the the

so-called the liberal artists when we

made that uh Manifesto which became

popular with the name of manik kabu or

cultural

Manifesto and so I was especially when I

was involved in trying to oppose uko

because there was no democracy and so I

was involved during the student

demonstration or joined the student

demonstration at that time because uh my

purpose is basically

to uh to establish a kind of uh

democracy at the

time as life became more and more

difficult in the early 1960s the

Communist Party the pki grew stronger

their organization now reached into the

factories and

villages the government legislated for

land reform but were unable to carry it

out in 1964 the pki decided to take

matters into their own hands they

organized the seizure of land by The

Peasants this provocative action brought

the pki into direct conflict both with

wealthy Muslim landowners and the Army

who had taken over the running of the

Dutch

plantations

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fore

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by 1965 relations between the Communists

and the Army had reached

flasho the Communists had built strong

popular support that posed a real threat

to the Army's privileged

position the head of the Communist Party

idit publicly accused military leaders

of corruption and demanded that pki

members be included in the Army at all

levels it was now only a matter of time

before the uneasy balance between the

Army and the Communists was to end in

direct

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confrontation

in the early hours of October the 1st

1965 six generals were kidnapped and

killed by troops of sano's presidential

guard in an attempted Army coup General

Nan was the only one to

escape just a couple of minutes before

they came it was a mosquito in my

bedroom so my wife put the light on I

was with a big sapu you know sapu lady

uh behind this and then noisy of many

tracks there so my wife opened the door

of the bedroom and look outside and she

saw the presidential guards the first uh

Echelon coming inside forcing through

the front door and so immediately uh uh

locked the door as a wife they had

better feeling than I am he said don't

go outside it is not good not good for

you I think so but I said to my wife

they are soldiers I will talk to them uh

you know PR are also soldiers my wife

said no but I forced I opened the door

and the first Soldier is about 1 M and

half uh from me and immediately firing

you know as a military man you drop

yourself immediately and that saved me

but immediately my wife put me aside and

locked the door and there are about more

than 11 bullet holes in my bedroom oh

and then this the guns trying to get

inside but uh my wife she said you have

to flee from here they will murder you

after after I left the room my sister a

student of the University brought my

crying little daughter of five years and

they went through the wrong door where

they waiting for me and so she got five

bullets in her body so I would like to

jump back here to see my daughter but my

wife said no they are here to kill you

not not us

a

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I remember my wife brought my daughter

in her hands to the grave and I coming

there from my car here everybody was

embracing me and so on

and after the

funeral started the copy the high school

students

organization uh with a demonstration and

R for the first time the headquarters of

the Communist Party in jagara it started

at that time that day after the

funeral

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spe after the failure of the attempted

coup president sakano was gradually

stripped of all

authority the besieged president was

forced by the Army to appoint their

choice as commanderin-chief

I

president supreme commander of the Armed

Forces of the Republic of

Indonesia

appoint Major General

zaro

man I I appoint him as

Minister

commander of the

army

and God willing

inallah I shall uh

how in aurate

him as

such and I think in one or two

days step by step General Sahar was to

take over the running of the

country

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the Army leadership accused the

Communists of masterminding the

attempted coup by blaming the Communists

the Army was able to unleash a fullscale

Onslaught on their long-term rival for

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power the military from Jakarta came to

the area and uh and then the killing

started done by the civilian to get with

the military so it seems that with the

military coming there there was an

encouragement by the people to arrested

the supposed to be the Communist members

and they killed them I saw many people

here and most of them are from uh young

people uh

anti-communist

anti-communist and also some uh Army

some

Army and the start uh making

executions here in this

bridge I saw uh some of these

communist being

executions and then my friend come back

to me and says you remember you do you

remember our friends when we studied in

Georgia and he mentioned me one of the

my friends name and I I said yes I

remember him where is he

now why don't

we come and

see and then my friend took

me across this River somewhere there and

then I went to make my step to the back

side of a small uh small

house there was

uh five uh heads laying on the uh

ground and I found that one of the

heads is my friends that uh I know when

I was in

yoga in that time I feel something

horrible coming up in my uh soul and in

my

heart and I ask my friend who took me

here

oh is he is he a member of a

communist and my friend said he's one of

the

leader this thing happens just in a

short time and I feel that I was

empty I say

nothing I just feel like to cry and

to to

scream and and after that I decide to go

back to the

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city

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for

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did you feel there was a kind of

collaboration between the

Army and the Muslim people in the

campaign against the Communists for the

all anti-communist people we have the

same campaign in our own way of course

the Army in their organization we also

do the same as a member of the of the uh

of the

people we are the at the same idea and

we have to do the same thing so sometime

in one and other place we uh work

together for this which group was

deciding who should be the targets of

the of the

killings of the killing the target of

the killing was deciding deciding

everybody every people know uh who is

the Communist active before you know for

instance in the Village People

know uh persons among

them uh a uh was a communist so when the

time come the people Point him he was

the one or something so uh a group of

young people and also some of army come

to pick

him and then some of them execution

here for several months Communists were

hunted down and killed an estimated half

a million IND iians lost their lives in

one of the bloodiest massacres of modern

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times this

for

this man was to spend the next 14 years

incarcerated in prisons and

concentration camps he like hundreds of

thousands of others was jailed because

of his membership of a legal left-wing

organization While most prisoners have

now been released there are still a

small number of Communists and leftists

in jail some 25 years

later

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I

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president sakano was detained by the new

government and died in 1970 while under

house

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arrest in 1965 66 67

uh in a in a very quick way then the

military control also the political

situations uh because the only rival for

the military was sukaro and the

Communist party and they were put aside

from the scene of from the political

Arena of Indonesia then that means I

would say after

6869 the military control the political

uh life of Indonesia as well as the

economic life because they control the

state Enterprises so that's how they

became very strong and also they get

involved more and more into business uh

in the New

Order since 1966 the New Order

government dominated by the Army has

remained in

power General Sahar is now president

Sahar since taking power his government

has maintained stability concentrating

with considerable success on economic

development how do you think the New

Order differs from guided democracy

under sakano is it just a

continuation uh

from

reality is a continuation of uh Central

Power it is the still the same all the

time the emergency Powers were still

there he still has emergency Powers now

and if you have emergency Powers you can

partly of completely uh postpone the Civ

rights yeah this the whole problem uh if

you would like uh according to

Constitution freedom of speech

expression uh freedom of writing and to

to have associations and so is still not

yet there

yet like all new nation states Indonesia

has a Parliament but it is a parliament

without

opposition there are elections but the

results are always known in

advance gar the government's own party

always receives around 2/3 of the

vote the government believes that

western style political practices are

divisive the New Order has built a

political system aimed at cohesion and

Harmony which has the important function

of ensuring that the government

remains in

power Indonesia's economic Prosperity

has meant that most communities are now

better off the huge influx of money from

the oil boom of the 70s and ' 80s has

enabled the government to build New

Roads hospitals schools and

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houses fore

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ald

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fore

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fore

while the old order government wanted to

break the power of foreign Capital the

New Order government has attracted

massive amounts of foreign investment

which has helped Indonesia to become one

of the fastest growing economies in

Southeast

Asia springing up outside the major

cities are huge Industrial Enterprises

most often owned by Foreign investors

working in partnership with local

Chinese

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Indonesians millions of young people

have moved out of their villages to work

in factories living far from their

families the hours are long often 12

hours a day

6 days a

week but because there are far more

people than jobs young women like hotty

consider themselves lucky to have

permanent

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work pooty sings in a band which

practices in in the lunch

break despite her meager wage she still

manages to scrape together enough to

send money back to her

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family

for

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speee

fore

spe

for

say

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fore

BTY earns little more than a dollar a

day only one Trade union is allowed in

Indonesia the

governments by ensuring a doile

Workforce the government attracts the

billions of dollars of foreign

investment which is powering the economy

as Indonesia has prospered some have

become extremely rich the wealth

accumulated by big businessmen and their

political Partners has become an

embarrassment the government maintains

that this wealth by creating employment

trickles down to the Ordinary

People president Sahar has called some

of the wealthiest businessmen to his

Ranch to ask them to share some of their

profits with the

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people problem now you know is with the

progress of Economic Development there

is a feeling as if the development is

not

balanced there are coming the capital

from outside and they come in the hands

of the ethnic Chinese and they cooperate

with uh people who are with political

power you know and then you have a kind

of combination between the political

power with the economic power and the

conglomerate problem is the problem of

today but there are still restrictions

the government has restrictions against

the Chinese no yeah oh yes why yeah

because we the government has the duty

you know to to balance that but on the

other hand sometimes you know government

officials not the government govern

officials they are

uh

lured to to give uh facilities to the

Chinese because the Chinese

they they will they are willing to

serve the officials but at the same time

they are also

exploiting but it is

historical so there is a kind of

division of labor among the economic

technocrats and the military so the

economic technocrats deal with economic

development and the military deals with

political

stability and this also being justified

Again by an ideology of development

which is basically Economic Development

can only take place if there is a

political

stability the Govern government seems to

tolerate descent to certain people if

you are too weak they will destroy

you in georia there were some students

who start criticizing the government and

then one of the student uh violate a law

where they sold books that were banned

already he was arrested but the main

thing is that these students has friends

who criticize the government in in in

the public forum this discussion seminar

and with the students they arrested two

other people who were not involved in

the selling books and the three of them

were accused as doing subversive things

and they were arrested and they were

sentenced between 6 to 8 and a half

years so it was uh very unjust of course

I think they were taken an example by

the government you know if you talk too

critical to us this is an example so the

other students were afraid of doing the

same and now they are still in jail

so now you can see that uh we have the

state dominated by the military and you

have a civil society and the Civil

Society is so unorganized so weak uh uh

divided into pieces of groups uh and the

state is so strong organized and backed

by the military so we get uh we get the

problem of democracy when the Civil when

the Civil Society has no power at all to

challenge not even to challenge just to

criticize the government it is becoming

more and more

impossible would you say the Army

control the economy of Indonesia yeah

because the president you see is an army

man and uh big in uh Economic

Institutions is going through the

generals do you think the question of

the ownership of wealth in Indonesia is

becoming more of an issue a political

issue I think it's becoming an issue

because we have uh we fight for

independence to get social justice and

Welfare of the people not to get some

people rich and not the others that is

the big problem you cannot have social

justice without political

development

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for

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for

speech

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fore

spee

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speeech

foreign foreign

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spee

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you